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Sony Research Award Program

Details
Opportunity NameResearch Award Program
AgencySony
ValueFaculty Innovation Award – Up to $100,000 USD 
Focused Research Award – Up to $150,000 USD 
Indirect CostsEligible at 40%
Duration1 year, with a possible extension
Deadlines
Application due to FSc RO at sciapps@yorku.ca for full review08-30-2024
Application and fully signed ORS checklist due to FSc RO at sciapps@yorku.ca for mandatory review09-09-2024
Final application and fully signed ORS checklist due at ORS for mandatory review09-11-2024, by 9:00AM
Application due at agency 09-15-2024, by 11:59PM
Objective

To provide cutting-edge academic research and helps build a collaborative relationship between faculty and Sony researchers.  Researchers may apply under the following two Target Award Programs:

Faculty Innovation Award – Sony would like to partner with universities to help cultivate advanced concepts and fertilize their own research and development.  Funds will be provided to conduct pioneering research in the areas listed below: 

  1. Information Technology
  • Affective Computing
  • Audio, Music, Speech, and Language Processing
  • Communication
  • Computer Vision
  • Data Analytics
  • Human Sensing and Interaction
  • Machine Learning
  • Planetary Sensing
  • RF Sensing
  • Robotics
  • Security
  • Simulation and Informatics
  • Systems and Networking
  • Visual/Visualization 
  1. Devices and Materials
  • Display Device/Optical Beam Steering
  • Laser/VCSEL
  • Metasurface/DOE
  • Simulation and Informatics
  • Sustainable Devices and Materials 
  1. Biomedical and Life Science
  • Biophotonics
  • Cell Biology
  • Digital Health

Focused Research Award – This Award provides an opportunity for university faculty, research institutes, and Sony to conduct collaborative, focused research in the areas listed below: 

  • Unified Diffusion Modeling for Smart Content Creation
  • Long Video Understanding for Highlight Creation Assistance
  • Novel Mechanisms and Actuators for Robots
  • Physics-based Robotics Simulation
  • Multimodal Scene Generation for Content Creation
  • Speech Understanding, Processing and Generation on Indian Languages
  • Simultaneous Optimization of Process Conditions and Material Specifications for Device Fabrication Using Small Datasets
  • Advancing Visual Technology enabled by AI
  • AI-based Digital Human Content Creation
  • Interactive Experiences with Virtual Agents
  • Neural Physics for Engaging Interactive Simulations in Real-Time
  • Conversion and Optimization Technology for I/O Information of Various User Interfaces by AI-based Abstraction

Eligibility

Principal Investigators (PIs) must meet the eligibility criteria below.

  • Must belong to a university, educational institution, or governmental/non-profit research institute.
  • Must be a full-time professor (adjunct professors and adjunct researchers are not eligible) or researcher and be eligible to supervise Ph.D. students at the PI’s institution. Full professors, associate professors, and assistant professors are eligible to apply.
  • Must be in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, or the United States of America.

How to Apply

Please note that the submission process requires applicants to click an acceptance box certifying that they are authorized to bind both themselves and the university. Applicants must submit their application along with a completed and fully signed ORS Checklist to researchapps@yorku.ca no later than 9:00am on September 11, 2024 for review. Once ORS has reviewed and confirmed all is in order, an e-mail will be sent to the applicant authorizing submission of the application on behalf of the university. 

York University researchers are reminded that all applications for external research funding, including Letters of Intent, must be reviewed and approved by the Office of Research Services before they are submitted to the granting agency.  For internal approval, the application must be accompanied by a completed ORS Checklist, which requires the Dean’s signature.  Please send the complete application, with the finalized budget and a completed ORS checklist to sciapps@yorku.ca, five days prior to agency deadline.

ORS is accepting electronic applications – the process is outlined here.


For specific questions, please contact FSc Research Services at sciapps@yorku.ca